Maybe it’s because dressing up as the economy would be kind of lame, but I’m haven’t heard Jack O’Shit in the way of truly scary costume ideas this year. Sarah Palin isn’t scary, she just sucks. And Joe the Plumber is more sociologically unsettling than he is frightening.

Ever since some factory in China hot-glued together that first pair of slip-on cat ears, Halloween revelers have increasingly flaked on bringing the scary. And though it’s sad that fake flies and leprosy patches are no longer de rigueur, perhaps we can take solace in knowing that Halloween remains, at its high-fructose-corn-syrupy core, about becoming what you ain’t — whether that be a farmer freshly run over by a combine or just Amy Winehouse.

Over the years, these slackening customs have inspired a parallel tradition: bands dressing up as other (defunct) bands. Although the morbid interpretation potential is limitless (rope + Jergens bottle = Michael Hutchence; fake puke + glue = John Bonham or Jimi Hendrix), local bands have opted for an odd respect toward the departed, sometimes morphing into their influences, sometimes mutating into their opposites, usually just blowing away their fellow band dudes with the obscurity of their selection. Let’s have a look at the best of this year’s harvest of poseurs.

OCTOBER 30Some prefer to get their Halloweenery over with nice and early so that on the day itself they can devote their full attention to not opening the door for nougat-starved children. As such, the selection of bands tends toward the 30-plus-but-still-degenerate crowd.

Destroy Babylon, a lily-white reggae combo, are planning to get all Sandinista! as the CLASH on the entirety of London Calling at Church, after which the Macrotones will attempt to mack the JB’S — and may well do a fine job, as they deal in sweet Afro-tinged funk to begin with. The only scary element here is the high probability of high attendance from the highly high.

Across town at Porter Belly’s Pub, the Alpacas threaten double trouble, drafting one set as JOHNNY CASH (in a three-person black suit, perhaps?) followed by another as the POGUES. The strategy here seems obvious: 1) get drunk; 2) then get drunker.

HALLOWEEN
What’s scarier: the ’90s or the fascination with the ’90s? The Pill (at Great Scott) is prime time to sort this dilemma out, as the Perennials do the STROKES, the Wonderful Spells take on the KINKS, and the Sun Lee Sunbeam do ELASTICA — which means Elastica better write another couple of songs.

Across the river at the Middle East upstairs, there’s a line-up of temporary supergroups that reads like a WZBC DJ’s fever dream: members of Ho-Ag, Ketman, and Thunderhole doing BUTTHOLE SURFERS; staff from Hallelujah the Hills, Ketman, and Amoroso doing the 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS; World’s Greatest Sinners doing X-RAY SPEX. This show will also feature a “heavy-metal tribute” set from AASGAARD SCIMITAR — dudes from Ketman, Shore Leave, and Tristan da Cunha.

Back at Church there’s some high-quality rootsy fare, but also the least scary event in the history of events: Mike MacDonald and the Widow Makers as WHISKEYTOWN, the Bees Knees as BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD, the Bean Pickers Union as WILCO, Golden West Motor Lodge as LUCERO, and the Dirty Truckers as the ROLLING STONES. Eeeeek! Can we come out now?

For maximum screams, it makes sense to head toward the screaming. The Democracy Center has a pants-pooper of a night, with Third Death playing the MISFITS, Draize pulling off a SLAPSHOT set, Like Rats as NEGATIVE APPROACH, and Critical Hit as ANTI-PRODUCT. You might not even need to bring your fake blood.

5 for '10 I love baby bands, and I hope the ones I mention here don't mind my calling them that.

Nachtmystium: black-metal psych-out “Psychedelic black metal” is a tag that Chi-town black-metal stalwarts Nachtmystium started to hear around 2006, when they released Instinct: Decay .

Women | Public Strain For their sophomore effort, Women returned to the same Calgary studio that had birthed their 2008 debut, the basement of fellow musician/neighbor Chad Van Gaalen.

Aloud-er than bombs "All my possessions are fucking gone," says Aloud guitarist/vocalist Jen de la Osa after the band's September 23 Exile album-release party at Church.

Unhappy birthday It seems like only yesterday that I was huddled in the corner of my room, staring listlessly out the window through tear-smeared glasses, absently singing along to “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” and wondering when my life would finally show my heart a modicum of mercy. . . . Oh wait. That was yesterday.

Young Adults emerge from Allston apartments Last month, when scraggly local trio Young Adults wandered out on stage at the Middle East downstairs to open for hyped lo-fi darlings Best Coast, college indie brats were already thronging the room.

BOSTON PRIDE WEEK: OFF THE MAP | June 07, 2010 We may seem a little cranky, but us local gayfolk just love a parade, and we’re actually heartened by this annual influx of brothers and sisters from every state of New England and every letter of our ever-expanding acronym.

THE NEW GAY BARS | June 02, 2010 If I may channel the late, great Estelle Getty for a moment: picture it, Provincetown, 2009, a dashing young man with no discernible tan and an iffy T-Mobile signal languishes bored upon the sprawling patio of the Boatslip Resort.

ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI | BEFORE TODAY | June 01, 2010 If the gradual polishing of Ariel Pink’s sound — and it’s not all that much more polished — puts his loyalists at odds with his albums, I count that as good news.

MORE THAN HUMAN | May 26, 2010 It’s hard to talk about Janelle Monáe when your jaw’s fallen off.